Fat is an important part of all living things and most body fat in animals and people is white. White fat allows people to eat more than they need when food is enough. It stores those extra calories until food becomes short.
Hibernation(冬眠) can help animals get through the cold winter. They feed themselves on much food in fall in preparation for a long and cold winter. Animals don’t eat when they are hibernating.
When in torpor, it seems that animals have been sleeping. But torpor goes much deeper than that. In fact, animals’ activities slow down in torpor.
In order to wake up during the hibernation, these animals have to warm their bodies.
| A．But hibernating animals don’t stay asleep all winter long. |
| B．If so, they will suffer from hunger during the winter. |
| C．Their heart may beat only a few times each minute. |
| D．Instead, they burn their white fat to keep their bodies running. |
| E．They might feel comfortable when they wake up after a long winter. |
| F．Then the body burns it for energy to stay alive until more food shows up. |
| G．That means going from a temperature above freezing to their usual body temperature. |
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【推荐1】My work started in 2003 at my local animal shelter’s Adoption Department. It seems like such a long time ago. In the 13 years that have passed, more than 50,000 animals have passed the doors of the shelter. Most of them, I do not remember. But occasionally there are animals who stand out. Tabby was one such animal.
Tabby was one of the many homeless dogs. What’s more, she was blind and deaf. Tabby’s chances at adoption seemed remote at best. But one day a woman named Loretta came to the shelter. Her son, Gary, who suffered from epilepsy (癫痫) had seen Tabby’s picture on the shelter’s website. They were interested in meeting her! Most boys would want a puppy, a dog who could grow with him and run through grassy fields on summer days. Tabby would never be able to do that. But as they say, "love is blind". After meeting her, they decided to adopt Tabby!
If Tabby’s story had simply ended with her successful adoption, it would still have been something very special indeed but it was what happened after her adoption that some might label as "magical" or perhaps even miraculous. As Gary and Tabby did everything together, they became so "in tune" with one another that Tabby began to telegraph Gary’s seizures (疾病发作) before they occurred, giving his family a warning that one was about to strike. What’s more, Gary seemed to be having fewer and fewer seizures since Tabby’s arrival.
How could it be? There are some things that happen in this world that challenge all logic and understanding. Sometimes, the best that we can do is to accept a miraculous thing, which we didn’t attempt to explain. Because when you try to explain it, you lose the beauty and wonder of it all.
1. Which sentence can be used to describe Tabby?| A．She was so lovely that she could be easily adopted. |
| B．She suffered a lot from the disease-epilepsy. |
| C．She was so strong that she could run very fast. |
| D．She was homeless and couldn’t see or hear. |
| A．Amazing. | B．Typical. | C．Interesting. | D．Special. |
| A．Gary learnt about Tabby from a magazine. |
| B．Gary was cured in the company of Tabby. |
| C．Tabby could indicate a seizure before it struck. |
| D．Most boys would have the same decision as Gary. |
| A．Love is Blind: a Miraculous Dog | B．Give Me Food: My Dear Master |
| C．Love is Everywhere: a Poor Dog | D．Take Me Home: My Dear Boy |
【推荐2】Capybaras (水豚) are group animals, so they do not like being alone. In fact, leaving a capybara alone is not only uncomfortable for the animal, but it can be harmful to their physical health, as well as their mental happiness. Capybaras love to talk to each other throughout the day. Groups of capybaras spend their days sun bathing along the edge of rivers, where they enjoy swimming together in the water. They spend half of their lives in the water.
Since they spend so much time around water, it makes sense that capybaras would come into contact with different kinds of other animals who stop in for a drink. Capybaras are gentle and peaceful river animals who enjoy a short sleep along the water’s edge — and often do so with other animal species as well. You can find pictures all over the Internet of these lovely animals lying beside turtles, birds, ducks, rats, and even monkeys as they enjoy a nap by the water.
Capybaras are also known to be excellent and friendly taxis in the animal world. Birds and monkeys commonly stand on the back of a capybara for a ride as capybaras search for grass to eat. Sometimes capybaras even serve as boats for other animals, letting them sit on their heads as they swim through the water.
However, if you see a capybara lying on its side with a yellow-headed caracara (长腿秃鹰) on its body, don’t panic just yet. Most likely the copybara is enjoying a nice spa day. Birds often make friends with capybaras and provide a natural cleaning service, picking off insects that live in the capybara’s fur. It’s a relationship that benefits each other, since the yellow-headed caracara also gets to enjoy eating those tasty insects. Yet, such lovely capybaras are not free of human influences and even face extinction now.
1. What does the first paragraph mainly tell us about capybaras?| A．Their life habits. | B．Their survival skills. |
| C．Their appearance. | D．Their risks in health. |
| A．They search for food for birds and monkeys. |
| B．They carry their food by riding on another animal. |
| C．They allow other animals to stay on their backs or heads. |
| D．They guide other animals to swim through the water as a driver. |
| A．The caracara won’t attack you. |
| B．The capybara won’t suffer any injury. |
| C．The caracara may just take a short break. |
| D．The capybara may be providing its cleaning service. |
| A．Calls for protection. | B．Habits of caracaras. |
| C．Benefits of extinction. | D．Threats from capybaras. |
【推荐3】The giant panda is more than just a cute conservation animal and a beloved media darling. It is also, according to new research, the protector of dozens of other unique Chinese species. The panda itself doesn’t actually defend other wildlife, but it helps to save it all the same by serving as what’s known as an “umbrella species”. In other words, efforts to preserve habitats for the giant panda also protect many other mammals, birds and amphibians (两栖动物) that live only alongside pandas, in the same areas and regions.
Conservationists have expressed this umbrella species theory for years but a paper published recently in Biological Conservation proves it. The research found that most of the forest animals in China live within the panda’s geographic range and the nature reserves set aside to protect them. In brief, most of this range overlaps (与……重叠) with important conservation areas for other local forest species.
Pandas do protect a lot although a few species fall outside the umbrella. The research found about one hundred kinds of animals are not protected by the giant panda’s current reservation. The paper identified 10 locations that might be suitable for new or improved nature reserves to help expand that coverage. Many of these areas, located in Sichuan Province, which is considered the stronghold (大本营) of giant pandas in the wild, are close to existing reserves.
Protecting the newly identified locations, however, won’t save all of China’s unique wildlife. “Pandas are a good umbrella species for forest ecosystems in China but that’s not enough,” says co-author Binbin Li. “In China we have many ecosystems. We need more umbrella species.” For example, she says tigers could serve the same role in the northern part of the country and snow leopards could be an umbrella for grassland species.
“The new findings are important,” Pimm (the other author) and Li say, “because many people doubt whether China’s commitment to preserving giant panda habitats is doing much good.” Other people around the world don’t even realize that wild pandas still live in their native forests. “A lot of the resources in China go to releasing captive (被关住的) pandas back into the wild,” Li says. “The news doesn’t cover that.” She says this paper helps display wild pandas and also shows that the expense in preserving them is money well spent.
The researchers hope their paper helps to set the tone for future discussions not only about umbrella species but also giant pandas themselves, along with all China’s wildlife.
1. Giant pandas are called an umbrella species because ________.| A．they never fight for protected species |
| B．they help take care of other baby animals |
| C．their precious value requires better protection |
| D．the protection for them also extends to other species |
| A．The number of nature reserves may be reduced. |
| B．The coverage of nature reserves may be expanded. |
| C．The giant panda lives in important local conservation areas. |
| D．Many nature reserves in China are located in Sichuan Province. |
| A．Create more kinds of strong species. | B．Find more kinds of umbrella species. |
| C．Focus solely on pandas’ conservation. | D．Search for much bigger nature reservations. |
| A．showing how well pandas are living | B．blaming the media for their ignorance |
| C．proving China’s efforts to protect pandas | D．appealing to organizations to donate money |
| A．The umbrella species have a great influence on the ecosystem. |
| B．Researchers have done a lot to protect China’s local species. |
| C．Giant panda conservation also protects other unique species. |
| D．Conservationists expressed a new umbrella species theory. |
